Winter in Beijing
Text by Yin Xing
In his 2007 song “Winter in Beijing”, Chinese singer Lao Lang described the city’s typical winter conditions: Dry and cold with little snowfall. Seven years later, perhaps due to global warming, Beijing saw even less snow in the winter of 2014.
In the past, winter often lasted as many as 150 days in Beijing, with the lowest temperatures dropping to -20 degrees Celsius. All buildings in the Forbidden City, for instance, were designed to handle such a climate. Halls on the north-south axis face south, a design intended to keep them warmer with sunlight. Moreover, all halls feature thick exterior walls and roofs, which also helps maintain warmth. The surrounding thick, tall city walls can shelter buildings from northwestern wind in winter.
Furthermore, almost every hall or palace in the Forbidden City was equipped with an indoor underground heating system powered by a one-meter-deep fire pit outside. Halls and palaces with such heating were called “warm chambers.”
In winter, halls and palaces were also equipped with stoves or burners. A gigantic stove can weigh hundreds of kilograms. Occupants also used a kind of small, portable burner the size of a watermelon. Individual devices were designed specifically to heat either the feet or hands. Such stoves were fueled with top-quality charcoal that burned easily and produced little smoke and odor so they could be used indoors.
By the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Forbidden City supported a huge residential population. Each winter, they consumed considerable volumes of charcoal. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, members of the royal family were allotted charcoal according to the following standards: 60 kilograms for the empress dowager, 55 kilograms for the empress, 45 kilograms for each noble imperial consort, and 37.5 kilograms for each imperial concubine, 15 kilograms for each princess, 10 kilograms for each of the emperor’s sons, and five kilograms for each of the emperor’s grandsons.
During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, glass was introduced to China. Windows sealed with paper were replaced with glass, which not only allowed more light to penetrate inside while better retaining heat. During the reign of Emperor Xuantong, the Palace of Prolonging Happiness, inhabited by Empress Dowager Yulong, was even equipped with modern electric stoves.
Until the 1980s, Beijing’s winters remained chilly. It was common to see pedestrians sporting bulky jackets to fend off the cold north wind, accented with ice crystals from their frozen breath hanging from collars and eyebrows. At that time, local residents still used iron stoves fueled with coal briquettes. In the early years of the People’s Republic of China, electric stoves were rarely found in homes. At that time, however, snowfall wasn’t as rare as today. Beijing’s record-setting 6.2mm of snow occurred in 1989. Snow affords extra fun in winter. In addition to building snowmen and snowball fights, children also enjoyed catching sparrows: They attached a net to a stick and scattered some millet as bait. Then, they hid indoors while holding a rope tied to the stick. When sparrows came to eat the millet, they pulled the rope, causing the net to catch the sparrows.
Ice skating was another popular winter pastime. In winter, Beijing lakes such as Shichahai and Houhai became ideal skating destinations for homemade sleighs. At that time, homemade ice lanterns gained popularity among residents of siheyuan (traditional quadrangle residences). To make such ice lanterns, people first rolled color paper cuttings into cylinders and then placed them in a bottle of water. Then, they positioned a thread in the center and set the bottle outdoors. After the water in the bottle froze, they carefully removed the ice as a beautiful ice lantern. They then hung them to decorate courtyards.
Over the last decade, warm winters became more common in Beijing. Data released by the Climate Center of Beijing Meteorological Bureau shows that the city’s average temperature was -1.9 degrees Celsius in the winter of 2013-14, 1.2 degrees higher than the average over previous decades. The figure is the fourth highest since 2000. According to Ai Wanxiu, a senior engineer at the Service Office for Climate and Climate Change of the National Climate Center of China, China’s average temperature in the 2013-14 winter marked the peak of the past five years, but from a long-term perspective was extremely high. Over the past century, the country’s temperature saw a clear rise, but the rate of increase seems to have slowed in the past decade. Although snowfall has become rarer and rarer due to warmer temperatures, people can still find plenty of fun in winter at ice and snow carnivals in parks around urban Beijing, the annual Ice Lantern Festival held in Yanqing District and ski resorts in Chongli County, Zhangjiakou City.
Soure: China Pictorial
